"particularly notable"

Among their contemporaries (from about 9th to the 11th centuries)? Or, in modern period?

As for the former, as I illustrated a bit before in: I have a friend who constantly jokes that "Vikings were just cold Phoenicians". To what degree is he correct?, geographical range of their activity was certain remarkable among other raiders/ traders in contemporary Eurasia. To give an example, a silver coin (Islam dirham) minted in Samarkand, Central Asia, around 915, found its way into the recently found hoard in northern England (Vale of York Hoard) dated to 927 (while not strictly in academic one, BBC's A History of the World in 100 Objects: Episode 56 offers us a convenient introduction to the hoard). In other words, "the Vikings" (diverse early medieval texts rarely used the same term to denote Scandinavian travelers) connected several local hubs of slave-silver trade networks across north-western Eurasia.

Concerning their popularity of the Viking in modern Europeans, while much more can always be said, the answer by /u/Platypuskeeper in Did the Medieval and early Modern Nordic countries identify with the pre-Christian vikings or is that part of the legacy of Nationalism in the region? might offer some basic outlines to us.

Very roughly speaking, their popularity (in Western Europe) largely owes the re-discovery of medieval texts in the period of Romanticism (since late 18th century), especially in Britain and later in Germany. There had also been some more pre-history of post-medieval reception of the tradition of the Vikings (more correctly speaking, legends of the Scandinavians in the past) in early modern Scandinavia, though. As I summarized before in: Why did Medieval Icelanders write so much? (or did they?), early modern rivalry between Denmark and Sweden had also led to the competition after "the cultural treasure" from Iceland, that it to say, medieval manuscripts and the legends recorded in their parchments. Thus, compared with other medieval literature that would got much attention in post-medieval period mostly first in the 19th century, legends and sagas in medieval Icelandic manuscripts had already got some popularity by then.